Photos from Haiti: October 2017

In late October 2017, a small group from Saint James’ visited North-East Haiti. This was not a mission trip; rather, we traveled there to learn about how Saint James’ could be a long-term partner in the work that Haitians are already doing to improve the educational lives of children.

Our goal was twofold.

First, we went learn about primary education in northern, rural Haiti and to connect with Haitians improving the educational opportunities of children there, especially in an Episcopal context. We were able to board for a week at St Barthelemy Episcopal School in Terrier Rouge, where we gained insight into the potential of an Episcopal school in this region and what a transformative impact it can have on a small town.

Second, we went to seek out and connect with an Episcopal primary school in the area, with the goal of providing long-term financial support and establishing a lasting relationship. We found this in St Luc Episcopal Church & School in Trou du Nord.

Because the largest ministry of Saint James’ is our school, and because Haiti is the largest diocese in the American Episcopal Church, it seems a natural fit that we use our material resources and intimate knowledge of the challenges facing an Episcopal school to do what we can to support a similarly-sized school in Haiti, where the effects of quality education can be absolutely transformative to individuals and to a community.

These are images from our trip.

PHOTOS BY HAITIAN BOYS

“Each of the following photos was taken by a Haitian boy in Terrier Rouge. Three boys took an especially keen interest in my camera: Jeff, Dervilien and Hermetz. All three are students at Ecole St Barthelemy, and each boy is either nine or ten years old. At various points during the week, I was able to hand my camera to them and they took it from there. I think these are the most valuable images from our trip, because they show what Haiti looks like to Haitian children themselves.” -Coy

Daily Life in Terrier Rouge

Though only about 20 miles from Cap-Haïtian, the second-largest city in Haiti, Terrier Rouge is a quintessentially rural town of 10,000-15,000 residents. We got the distinct sense that everyone in the town knows everyone else. Almost no one lives on the outskirts of the town; to live in an isolated house would mean unacceptable isolation from the life of the community. Most structures in town are made with cinderblock and concrete, the ideal building materials in a place where air-conditioning is almost non-existent and where, despite the rarity of any rain at all, flooding is an ever-present risk from those storms that do make it over the mountains.

Tuesday, October 24 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Public-school students, identified by their blue/grey uniforms, cross National Highway 6 on their way to school.

Wednesday, October 25 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Elementary-school students walk to school in the morning. The boy in the red shirt attends Ecole St Barthelemy. The boys in the grey shirts attend the public school.

Thursday, October 26 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // An elderly woman waits in the early morning by National Highway 6 as a goat crosses the street. Goats and pigs roam freely through the streets of town. While not immediately obvious, most of the animals have owners recognized by the community. Because there is no government trash service, goats and pigs do a great deal to eat waste food discarded at different points throughout town.

Thursday, October 26 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // People take turns pumping water from a community well. While most homes in town do not have indoor plumbing, a well like this one is located every few blocks and accessible to everyone.

Thursday, October 26 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // A boy pumps water from a community well. While most homes in town do not have indoor plumbing, a well like this one is located every few blocks and accessible to everyone.

Wednesday, October 25 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Children gather to pump water from a community well. While most homes in town do not have indoor plumbing, a well like this one is located every few blocks and accessible to everyone.

Tuesday, October 24 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // A girl who attends Ecole St Barthelemy waves before going to play with friends during the late afternoon. The man on the left is Pere Jean Bruno, head of St Barthelemy, who had just greeted this girl with a hug. The man on the right is the mayor of Terrier Rouge.

Tuesday, October 24 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // A boy works on math homework, using a chalk on a concrete wall to solve equations.

Wednesday, October 25 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Portrait of a Woman and Her Son.

Wednesday, October 25 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // A truck carries half-liter water bags. Clean water is big business in Haiti, especially among young adults. These half-liter pouches are sold individually, and are a common source of plastic waste on the roadsides in a country with few landfills and little recycling capacity.

Wednesday, October 25 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // A man rests on his motorbike just outside of town.

Wednesday, October 25 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // A motorbike taxi passes a truck carrying foodstuffs up the main road from the south. Motorbikes are the main form of mechanized transportation in Haiti.

Saturday, October 28 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // A truck passes through town on National Highway 6.

Wednesday, October 25 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Immediate south of town, workers construct a roof on a building next to the main road.

Saturday, October 26 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Young men play a competitive afternoon football match in the street outside the gates of Ecole St Barthelemy.

Ecole St Barthelemy

Ecole St Barthelemy was founded in 2001 as a preschool with just 30 students. Since then, it has grown into a student body of 1,100 students ranging from preschool all the way through the upper secondary-school grades. From the two graduating classes so far, each of the 40 students has gone on to university, an astonishing feat in a country where only 32% of the population has even some secondary-school education, much less university experience. The school is run by Pere Jean Bruno, a retired Episcopal priest. He also chairs the board of Esperance et Vie, a nonprofit which funds the school, a local medical clinic and community improvement projects. Almost all students at St Barthelemy cannot afford the <$100-per-year tuition and attend through scholarships, funding for which stems mostly from donations by individuals and churches in the United States.

Tuesday, October 24 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Students at Ecole St Barthelemy raise the Haitian national flag over the courtyard during morning assembly. Every morning, the entire student body gathers to recite the Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23 and the Haitian national anthem.

Thursday, October 26 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Students at Ecole St Barthelemy wait to raise the Haitian national flag over the courtyard during morning assembly. Every morning, the entire student body gathers to recite the Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23 and the Haitian national anthem.

Tuesday, October 24 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Students wait for the start of the day’s classes at Ecole St Barthelemy.

Tuesday, October 24 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Students wait for the start of the day’s classes at Ecole St Barthelemy.

Tuesday, October 24 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Students hurry to their classrooms to start the day’s studies at Ecole St Barthelemy.

Wednesday, October 25 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // The building which houses the lower school of Ecole St Barthelemy.

Wednesday, October 25 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // Pere Bruno, a retired Episcopal priest, tours his small cattle farm a few miles south of town. In addition to founding Ecole St Barthelemy, he also founded Episcopal schools in Trou du Nord and Limonade.

Ecole St Luc

St Luc’s school was founded in the early 2000’s in Trou du Nord, a town somewhat larger than Terrier Rouge and about five miles away. Unlike St Barthelemy, St Luc has not had the blessing of such steady funding or a singular driving force like Pere Bruno to push it forward. Ecole St Luc currently enrolls about 250 students from preschool through the first year of secondary school. This number will greatly reduce by the end of the school year; many families cannot afford the tuition for the entire year, and must pull their kids out early. Of its $40,000 yearly budget, about $15,000 has been funded by an Episcopal Church in Maine, though this source of funding will drop to about $5,000 next year. The priest of Eglise St Luc, Pere Sadoni Leon, has put special focus on improving the quality of education at Ecole St Luc in the two years since he arrived in Trou du Nord. All new teachers graduated at least from secondary school in Cap-Haïtian, where the quality of education is generally much higher than in towns further east.

Wednesday, October 25 — Trou du Nord, Haiti // Students at Ecole St Luc pose in the courtyard after school.

Thursday, October 26 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // The main building and courtyard at St Luc.

Thursday, October 26 — Terrier Rouge, Haiti // The main building and courtyard at St Luc.

Eglise St Luc

On Sunday morning, we attended church at Eglise St Luc, the Episcopal church that runs the school. Pere Sadoni invited Fr Ben to give the sermon. Although the service is in Haitian Kreyòl, the primary spoken language in the country, the order of the service is almost identical to an Episcopal service conducted in English – a testament to the multilingual reach of the Book of Common Prayer. There were some marked differences from a typical American Episcopal service; drums formed a musical backdrop for many of the prayers and liturgies. The Prayers of the People, especially, were a vibrant expression of reverence and fervor. While only 20-30 parishioners attended on this particular morning because of some confusion about the time of the service, Pere Sadoni says about 70 people count themselves members of St Luc, most of whom attend every Sunday.

Sunday, October 29 — Trou du Nord // Musicians play service music during the morning worship service at Eglise St Luc.

Sunday, October 29 — Trou du Nord // Martine directs the choir during the morning worship service at Eglise St Luc. Martine is also the church’s treasurer and president of evangelism, as well as a kindergarten teacher for the school.

Sunday, October 29 — Trou du Nord, Haiti // Lay leaders read the Prayers of the People during the morning worship service at Eglise St Luc.

Sunday, October 29 — Trou du Nord, Haiti // Pere Sadoni Leon presents the bread and wine before communion during the morning worship service at Eglise St Luc. Before Pere Sadoni arrived at St Luc about 2 1/2 years ago, celebration of the Eucharist was infrequent. Many parishioners still choose not to take communion regularly.